Sunday, June 22, 2014

EDIBLE WEEDS : PART 14

AJERAN

I think this is another annoying weed that we can find almost everywhere.
This plant is full of 'needles'.
Yeah... beggar's tick or Spanish needles are the common name of this weed.
Ajeran (Bidens pilosa) is an annual herbaceous plant.
This is a member of Asteraceae family.
The white flower looks so simple, not interesting.
The mature black seed is needle shape.
And the seeds will paste to the cloth easily, jwhen we pass near the plant.
It's an invasive weed, that grow easily on the dry and open area, such as roadside or meadow.
Sometime we can find it in our home garden.
The young tender shoot is edible.
The shoots are usually steamed or boiled, then eaten as traditional salad.
The taste is slightly bitter.
This plant is well known as a home remedy to treat wounds, rheumatism, influenza, diarhea, and hepatitis.
The crushed leaves are used to treat poisonous bites, fresh wound and skin disorder.
We use to bite the tender shoot to treat toothache.
Do we still tell plant weed annoying weed?
Pick their tender shoots before they make us annoyed, .... and get a tasty dish...

Reader, these just a little amount of edible weeds arround us.
Actually, we have a plenty variety of weeds that these are edible.
In my mind, may be one day these weeds could be a crop and grown on our home garden, or maybe grown as a crop on a farmland.
Nothing impossible